thanks to my panel. i'm paul gigot. we hope to see you right here next week. on fox news watch. a week of anticipation as the news media got set for the big debates. >> governor romney doesn't have to want charm offensive but he has to prove he can related to average american voters. >> but a big win for romney and big shocker for the mainstream press. >> where was the president? where was the fight? >> liberal media trying to spin the outcome and did he have their man. >> did you really mean to call barack obama lazy. to call him lazy.... >> new details about the murders in libya. but that was missed by most in the news business.

a video clip from the president's past gets new attention for what was said. how did the media react and is it fair game? spanish channel univision gets high marks for covering fast and furious scandal. and weather channel heats up controversy about winter storms. >> jon: on the panel this week, writer fox news contributor, judy miller. also richard grenell. jing pinkerton and talk radio news bureau chief ellen ratner. i'm jon scott. fox news watch is on right now. >> jon: wouldn't you love the thought bubbles would say. that was the scene at the end of

the debate. this is some of the coverage that followed. >> it was a lot like the president obama we are used to hearing. i don't think he had the spark or energy or precision tonight that governor romney had. >> the president tonight was disappointing when he allowed mitt romney to that buck $716 billion in medicare. the president did not come out and explain it. >> it appeared that an energetic mitt romney appeared before a national audience. >> i think you are going to see team obama to buckle down more. he came out and he wasn't crisp. mitt romney looked like a credible punch. >> i think .... >> if you look at the twitter verse the republicans are very

happy at this moment including the top team around mitt romney. >> where was obama tonight? >> there you go. mainstream and liberal media are shocked, shocked. the president didn't win. >> right. chris matthews went on to say, if only the president had been watching my show. [ laughter ] >> look. this was one of those epic political masters. jay leno said it best, only the replacement refs think president obama had a good night. >> jon: the comment that challengers always get a boost. nobody seemed to want to say mitt romney won because mitt romney won. >> it was amazing even msnbc had to carry on as if someone in the family had died. it was as piston irk but it was a rare moment of consensus in

the press because the press basically agreed romney had won. that must have been painful to admit that but it was obvious. >> jon: they were waiting for a mitt romney gaffe. they were going to pounce upon that and it didn't happen? >> no, it certainly did not. i was not one of the mainstream liberal media but middle stream liberal media that was very upset how the presidential did. i have a theory about why he did as well. that is this white house as opposed to the bush white house and the clinton white house has been much more protective usually only the five or six television mainstream people get questioned. he doesn't engage in the sort of back and forth. even president bush had off the record west side radio people. he doesn't get to hear what some of the little stream media have to say. >> jon: we put together a list

of recent interviews the president has done, hard hitting events like people magazine and entertainment tonight and glamour. [ laughter ] i actually think it's deeper than that. we thought obama had a teleprompter. obama just wasn't himself. i think he was himself. he didn't have a teleprompter and mitt romney was himself. this is the exact mitt romney that the media have not wanted us to see. >> where has he been up until now? >> buried in internet. the realization that the headline is the staying power of 47%. why is 47% staying because the media are putting it on every day. >> when president obama didn't mention that. he didn'ting on the five trillion dollar attack. he did nothing to come back at

him. i have watched all these debates since clinton's first debate, i was in shock. >> loan why he didn't bring it up, it wasn't on the teleprompt. >> i agree what ellen was saying people said look after four years of press coverage he is not ready for tough questions or tough opportunity. >> it was just an attitude by obama of aloof disdain. it was supposed to be a strategy of not overly aggression but it felt terrible. >> jon: ellen had her theory about why the president came off why he did. on msnbc, michael dison claimed in his opinion that the president was overly deferential to mitt romney because he was concerned that he would come across as an angry black man.

michael moore, he blamed his effort on the coaching or the debate sparring that he got from john kerry. al gore, this is my favorite, being from denver he said that obama's poor performance could be blamed on denver's altitude. there you go. >> it's always the climate with al gore. >> he wasn't wearing enough earth tones. >> president obama has been to colorado so much even if that was the case, he had altitude sickness, he has adjusted. he has been campaigning more than he has been governing. >> big maher -- bill moore. said it was like michael jackson on tranquilizers. >> you know what andrew called it a disaster. >> i think he will do quite well in the next two debates so if he

did quite fine off the cuff but he doesn't get the hard questions. >> four minutes more speaking time during than 90 minutes than mitt romney did and he made far fewer points or punches. >> you are asking this part of the press to comment. i got to tell you it was not the best. i also have to say that part of it, i think, he didn't -- we always say you invite the person in your living room for the next four years. in the baltimore sun also said that mitt romney won the debate because he talked a little bit about his personal journey. the president didn't talk about that at all. >> jon: next on news watch, was the president's poor showing the fault of the debate's moderator.

>> middle next have been buried. they have been crushed. >> the media gave mitt romney high marks for debate performance. how does the media rate the job of the moderator? that is next. for the spender who needs a little help saving. for adding "& sons." for the dreamer, planning an early escape. for the mother of the bride. for whoever you are, for whatever you're trying to achieve, pnc has technology, guidance, and over 150 years of experience to help you get there. ♪

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>>. >> jon: cbs news host jim lehrer moderated the great debate this week but his performance didn't win him many accolades. robert bianco, apparently the best moderated ser no moderator at all. washington post, whether letting go of the leash was an intelligent on his part or the only option he definitely let go of leash.

>> jon: so, let's find out with our panelists think. >> the media is upset they weren't part of the story. the candidates got to talk. i think it's brilliant. this is exactly what a moderate ser supposed to do. this is not about the media. shame on the media who jump in there and say you didn't become part of the story and you didn't wrestle with the politicians. you are not part of the story. it's about their ideas. let them talk. you i loved it. >> jon: so barack obama supporter would he have done a better job. >> i think the two of them are

unrelated. but michael cauldron had an interesting point. leher did not go to new media or didn't take any crowd sourcing questions. he didn't ask people what he ought to ask. that is who decided by himself. >> jon: it was mostly the liberal media that trashed leher's performance and thought he was going to be unfair. >> steven colbert called him the most boring man on evening news. that is something what we saw. i have to agree with rick and with ellen. i think he understood that the two men wanted to engage and he stepped out of the way. that was a good thing. >> the lincoln-douglas debates were between lincoln and douglas. there were no moderator. everybody would like to say, that would be a better model. they tried it that th time.

now, the media are blaming leher. one wrote last week that the media is part of team. romney is playing against the democratic team and media team and the fact that leher wasn't a tackler he is now getting beat up for it. >> jon: the ratings were huge, 67 million people. they have a way of measuring people how people stay with the program. they stayed with it. leher must have been doing something right. >> again the media was removed from the equation. we got to see the candidates talking. i'm a big twitterer. it was very exciting to be twitter during the debate and watched as people xhen at a time. public has a role now. >> ten million tweets, that is lot of tweets. >> one of tweets that was trending on social media was the phrase poor jim, goes back to jim leler.

>> again i think the summary when remove the media and politicians to talk is always a good thing. >> jon: what would be -- if the roles of the two candidates were reversed and president obama had come way out in front of this thing, what would be the media being saying? >> it would be about jim lehrer other than he was a wise man. >> can you imagine if romney had spent the entire time looking down at his notes or sneering at his opponent how the media would have reacted. >> the media reacted there were very few people that obama made a passing mark. >> it was that obama wasn't there. >> there is no shortage of reporters saying what about big bird? they are going rally. they are on their backs, but they are going to get up and

charge ahead. >> jon: romney didn't seem to make any huge gaffes so big bird is some of the best they can come up as an attack clause. >> if you watched carol costello's show, you would have thought it was all about big bird. >> big bird's creators have written a letter to mitt, how could you do this after all the mornings i taught your sons. >> media didn't could cover the fact that the president of corporation for pbs patricia harrison was vice chair of the party and people are not even talking about that. >> it depends on where you stand. brilliant pbs to hire her to lobby for more money from the

government. >> we don't have a lot of money and we can't borrow from china. >> one hundredth of 1% is pbs. >> one one millionth of 1 percent is the other way. >> jon: speaking of gaffes and how the media handled them. next big debate is the vice presidential debate. what is going to be, i guess the means, as vice president biden goes up against ryan. >> you are all in chains and middle-class is buried. the media picked up on these on the way dan quayle there wouldn't be a debate. they would have biden in an undisclosed question. >> jon: big vice presidential debate comes next week, you can with a watch it on fox news channel on thursday night and more news watch ahead. >> first, if you see something

that you feel shows evidence of media bias. you have twitter you can tweet us. are the polls biased or is it the coverage? >> bring in the numbers, when it comes to political polls, who do you trust? who should you trust? and is there someone in the back room cooking the numbers? find out next on news watch. ande mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule.

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>>. >> jon: the first presidential debate was the big news of this week and governor mitt romney's big win gave the g.o.p. a big burst of energy and gave him a big boost in the polls the next day. in a cbs poll asking uncommitted voters who won, romney got 46%

and president obama got 62%. what about -- 22%. 32% said it was tie. these reactions are taken overnight and reactions may change, people's reactions may change but the media narrative stays the same. >> we'll see about this one. the polls on friday, rasmussen and we ask america both showed romney pulling ahead by a slim margin. i will predict the people who are complaining bitterly about the polls a week ago will not complain anymore. gallup organization had a blog about the methodology of this. the polls are what they are. they are a snapshots of opinion but they i don't think they cooked either way. therefore, i think conservatives should be happy.

>> jon: there was the "washington post" poll that ran on monday. judy is nodding her head. 41% for governor romney, 52% for president obama in this "washington post" poll. 52% of likely voters across swing states side with obama. 41% romney in the new national poll. the problem here there was a margin of error of 8 points and there was a sample size of 161 people? >> right that poll should have never one and hats off to jennifer rubin for the "washington post" who called her own newspaper on that poll and pointed out the eight-point margin of error and the slimness of it. what are the underlying assumptions about who is being polled.

>> jim garrity talked about the sample size. the other problem is who cares about whether the whole nation thinks one thing or the other. even if the sample size is good, which a lot is not it's part of the election. >> part of the narrative for me on the polls we don't get a quick snapshot. 116 people, 500 people and you don't know what the question is. as we know, you can ask a question a lot of different ways to get a lot of different answers. >> jon: it's also true that i think most people when they read a headline, and "washington post" made a headline out of those poll results, most people won't be looking for the margin of error. >> you can make an argue in the post and times are deliberately highlighting poll results to increase momentum. i think that the reality of the polls, the pollsters as opposed to the headline writers is the

fact that when everybody agrees that romney crushed obama in the debates. polls show that, too. everybody agrees that romney had a surge, he is surging. polls are reflecting what people are thinking. >> 4.5% margin of error means a 9-point swing. so within nine points you can say the whole thing is wrong. >> jon: one of the questions in the week ahead, we've seen the polls. we've seen the results of the last debate. are there going to be -- i guess is the coverage going to be skewed to match the polls or to match some direction that the media want this race to take? >> the think is president obama was saved by those job numbers on friday. once you have numbers that good, the mantra can swing back to the president regaining momentum realizing he didn't have a good

day. i think you will see the narrative shift back to the president. >> there you again you have 114,000 jobs created that. is not enough to keep up with population growth. doesn't keep up with population growth but the headline the president is talking about the fact we're going in the right direction. >> critics of the obama administration three years induce new metrics, labor force participation rate. there are other metrics that are much more discouraging. as long as the unemployment number becomes the single metric the administration benefits. >> as opposed to housing starts which is very low. >> jon: we'll have to leave it there. has the media finally caught up with the libya terror attacks? >> let's establish all the facts before we jump to any conclusions. >> administration is still tap dancing around the details about the deadly attacks in libya.

why aren't the media pushing for answers? that scenes next on news watch. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's.

>> live from america's fox's headquarters i'm arthel nevil. romney's campaign reporting $14 million following the face-off in denver. the president's campaign and democrats are reporting $181 million last month. romney campaign in republicans have yesterday to release their monthly totals. an outrage of deadly meningitis is spreading. cdc now confirming 7 people have died and 64 people have been infected across nine states. the latest cases are in ohio and minnesota. the outrage has been traced to steroid injections commonly used to treat babbling pain. the steroid is linked to a pharmacy in massachusetts. health officials say thousands of people may have received the

shots. i'm arthel nevil. now back to fox news watch. >> let me start by causing everyone against seizing on any single statement or piece of information to draw final conclusions. it's essential that we go through all of the information and the entire context so that we can get a full and complete, accurate understanding of what happened. i take those th responsibility very seriously. i believe that our diplomats deserve a rigorous, serious and careful process. >> jon: that is secretary of state hillary clinton on wednesday vowing to provide a full and accurate account on the attacks in benghazi that killed four americans. the terror attack taking place a

little over three weeks ago on september 11th. so, was that directed as at the media? was she telling reporters back off, don't be looking into the story and don't be pulling diaries out of the rubble? >> what i heard her say, hey, susan rice misspoke. >> jon: the u.s. ambassador a few days to say this was all just a spontaneous attack and responsible taken chris demonstration? >> what we saw from the secretary of state don't jump to conclusions. however, she should have said that to the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice because she judged to conclusions and told us unequivocally what happened. i'm perplexed as to why the media has not gone to susan rice as a follow-up, what were you talking about? because the facts have now proven you to be wrong. where the u.n. press corps.

where the state department press corps? >> she does not make herself very available. >> jon: she was very available on sunday morning. >> but then when you try to talk to her at united nations she will come out and make a few statements and then she is gone. >> now, look, when i heard secretary clinton say that, let's get to that after the elections, do us one favor and you can investigation all you want. >> i think at the same time susan rice was making her unequivocal statement about what this was and caused it. we had eli lake writing that within 24 hours there were indications from more than one intelligence source that this had been a preplanned attack involving al-qaeda or some elements thereof.

clearly there is a conflicting view of the facts here and we do need to get to the bottom of it. >> jon: thank god we have cnn and "washington post" to scour that site. >> jim if you recall when you and i and went to iraq in 2003, jim walked into what was then there c.i.a. and picked up documents that our government had just left behind. >> whole building full to be honest. it was quite something. however, look some of this is just the fog of war and fog of life. its kind of astonishing they would put it on site. >> if they were interested to get to the bottom of this. >> jon: is the administration concerned that one month out to an election they don't want to read a bunch of headlines about how this nation may have known or should have known about terrorists planning an attack on our facility? >> the narrative that the obama administration is pushing is

that osama bin laden is dead and we are fine. al-qaeda has been pushed aside. the media following have one quick prediction, abc's martha raditz a foreign policy expert and think she will get to joe biden on this. >> talking about al-qaeda on the ropes this was apparently an al-qaeda affiliated group that carried out fairly sophisticated attacks in benghazi? >> there is no question and there was more security for susan rice going to her media interview than there was for christopher. >> they indicated that the embassy diplomatic staff, the state department denied a request from the embassy security team in libya. they wanted a dc-3 to be kept in the country to better conduct their duties. again.

>> somebody made the decision not to spend money on security while we had intelligence that was saying, al-qaeda is beginning to take off. >> isn't that the kind of thing the media should be jump on. >> i think this is largely a media driven story, katherine heritage is doing wonderful work in this network, what we are encountering is stonewalling by the white house. they don't want to talk about the story, even as the story shifts day to day because they don't want to look bad. tom pickering is excellent but he is going to be reporting after the election. >> he will never blame the state department. >> i don't know about that actually. i think tom pick certifying a fair guy. i have to say this. the "wall street journal" both a couple of times that journalists have stayed on the case. they really have followed out the journalists have stayed on the case. i think journalists have stayed

on the case. they ran a front page on this. >> darrell issa has made it possible. >> jon: why are the media ignoring controversial words from the president's pac. >> i'm generally trying to avoid at ministers conferences. >> the videos from president's past get attention from the press but the liberal media kaul cry foul? are they fair game? does your phone give you all day battery life ?

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>>. when 9/11 happened in new york city they waived the stafford action. we can't expect new york city to rebuild on its own. forget that dollar you got to put in. that was the right thing to do. when hurricane andrew struck in florida, people said look at this devastation. we don't expect you to come up with almighty hand, here is the money to rebuild. you are part of the american family. what is happening now in new orleans? where is your dollar? where is your stafford act money tells me somehow the money down in new orleans don't care as much.

>> jon: then senator obama reportedly speaking to a mostly black audience in 2007. an event that was covered by the media back then. reintroduced by the conservative website the daily caller. jim, why does this video reappear now and how does it pair some importance in this campaign? >> it would have been hundred times more impactful if it came out in 2007. when people could have played it out, that president george w. bush went to new orleans a few weeks after the hurricane and committed $125 billion to help new orleans, anybody that has been near new orleans knows an enormous amount of federal money which the president chose not to talk about. >> jon: didn't he in the same speech speaking glowing words

about reverend wright? >> i think he was said unapologetically christian and black. but the president doesn't normally mention race when he gives a speech like that. that made it different but i don't think it makes it a scandal. it's the level of 47% statement which is what i think the republicans were trying to do by dragging out this on tape. it didn't work. i think it fell flat. >> i would agree with judy. remember that the president also said about new orleans and katrina that the administration was colorblind in terms of that, but what i have to say, they cover this in politico, how come nobody has been discussion whether the obama administration has made a difference in the

african-american communities. >> will the unemployment rate has sky right and he hasn't helped in the african-american communities. i am struck by this speech. if mitt romney gets criticized for going to the naacp and using the word obamacare why isn't barack obama criticized for a southern accent. if we are going to talk about pandering. this to me, you are watching somebody who we all know the president doesn't speak like that. she pandering and no one is talking about it. >> we have talked about it a lot on this show how when barack obama is speaking to certain people, whether they are workers at gm plants or black audience he tends to drop his g's and gets from folk i sy. >> in this was the middle of very successful presidential campaign. the media were siding by content

to say obama says it, he is race transcending visionary beyond partisan. all this stuff that reporters were saying in 2008, they could have looked at this. it's been on youtube for five years. >> it is not same as 47%. >> why is it not. is it different? >> one difference mitt romney said he was wrong about the 47%. it took him a week. he said, quote, completely wrong. five years later, has president obama adjusted to anything in that speech? no. >> and the difference is the "new york times" has covered the 47% video and they have not covered the video from barack obama. >> it's on not in the same universe. it rail isn't. i know conservatives are trying push that, but it is not in the same universe. >> jon: all right, next on news watch, uni' vision's report on

fast and furious might put the mainstream media to shame.

>>. >> jon: univision the spanish language television network had a shocking documentary linking the fast and furious gun running scandal to a bloody massacre in mexico in which 16 teenagers were killed in january 2010. abc, cbs and nbc have largely ignored the follow-up on this story. univision and praise they deserve putting it out there? >> kudos to them and it was really well researched piece. they decided to really follow the evidence. that is exactly what i think we need to require the media is to

go after this. univision did, no one else has done. it's taken years for this to happen. i think univision gets kudos but the rest of the media should be shamed into looking at this piece, why didn't we do that? >> jon: why isn't it happening. you know the way it works. news directors the big producers sitting in new york they pick up the "washington post" and "new york times" and they say go out and put that story on the evening news. >> i don't understand why they haven't. i think univision did a major job, they got a lot of criticism from people for saying they should have blamed the obama administration wholesale. i think that would have been out of the mission of univision, but you are right. people did not pick up what univision did and that is crying shame. >> they only didn't do it in this instance. they did a top interviews with

president obama. we know how hard that is. they actually really tough questions. it wasn't just the entertainment shows. >> this is mexican story. this is violence affecting mexicans. >> spanish is the largest minority group in the country. good chunk have a heritage back to mexico or to latin america. on top of that there is a major war going on, 50,000 people in this drug war. it should be front page news. it's not a matter of superiority. somebody is taking the lead and they are. >> jon: you have been watching. a border agent gets killed from a gun that came into america and was allowed to go into mexico

and the obama administration when 14 of the 14 teenagers get killed by some of those same guns, it's not a story for the american media? >> it's not a story, when pakistanis die and afghans die, all we see figures of americans. that is what the american media are. >> is that because some editor is saying, this would make the obama administration, or justice department really look bad. >> i really think, americans don't care about foreign affairs until they see a tank coming up their driveway. i do believe that editors are often reflecting in their home community. we are living next to failed state of co-at this point and it's not getting the press coverage it deserves. >> it's a pack mentality. journalists follow the group thing.

if the leaders of that group are not reporting, "new york times," ap, the others will not follow. >> 16 teenagers at birthday party and gunman burst in and blew them away with weapons that came with the permission of our justice department? >> another border agent since agent ivy was killed a little bit of news. nobody is connecting -- again this giant war. united states and drug consumption is financing people killing people all over the place. it's been a real black spot on american journalism they haven't but the bureaus in laredo. >> they better not put them in mexico because they won't survive. >> it's like syria, it's too dangerous to go there. but they don't want to issue an advisory. >> funding issue as well. >> jon: one cable channel's idea

about what to do with winter storms is catching some heat.

>>. >> jon: each year as you probably know the national hurricane center lists the names for the upcoming seasons for up coming storms and hurricanes. naming of hurricanes has been around for hundred years. they would name storms after the saints of the day. during the second world war, military meteorologists named storms after women. in 1953 they took that idea and started naming storms in the atlantic helping the public become more aware of storms and the threat they were about to bring. today the naming of storms is updated through a strict procedure by international committee of the world meet logical association. who died and then make them.

the geniuses of weather challenge announcing this week they will start to name winter storms. in place of things like snow megeddon and snow zilla, they have come up with these winners. draco, nemo, plato and yogi to name a few off their list. as you might expect the rest of the weather predicting universe didn't give it a warm reception. and deciding to name storms, they confuse media spin with science and public safety. as for the lame names, considering the weather channel is partially owned by nbc maybe they should look within the peacock family when